Seattle weekend

... and a little over four hours later we were there.

Jeff was dropped off at the downtown hotel for his conference planning meeting, and Calder and I set our sights on a Seattle adventure. We'd been there in March of last year had a great time, and ate so well. I craved a visit to Beecher's pretty much the entire weekend, but I wanted to do some new things this time.



Seattle Center beckoned. A childrens' museum, the monorail, and the Space Needle among its obvious attractions.

We opted for a ride up the top of the Space Needle. Ridiculously priced - thank goodness Calder was free - but still it was a beautiful day, so we had an amazing view from 520 feet up.



The view from the bottom was pretty gorgeous too. What color!

When we picked Jeff up from his meeting he handed me a napkin wrapped around an oh-so-good chocolate truffle cookie from the Dahlia Bakery. What a guy!

We are fortunate to have some great family in Seattle who open their home to us, help with adventure planning, and share some great food - among many other things! My cousin Nate has been studying the cuisines of India at Evergreen and he was in charge of a fabulous meal on Friday night. Butter Chicken, lentils with spinach, wilted chard with apple cider vinegar... Nate, it was so delicious! Thank you again!

On Saturday morning they guided us to a park I had remembered visiting years ago. Volunteer Park is in the Capitol Hill district.



I collected five different varieties of cones from trees surrounding the playground.



And the fall color change could be seen in the needles too.



Oh, and isn't this yellow so nice? (The boys are pretty sweet too.)



Here we are. A rare family shot.



There's also a conservatory in the park, and in one wing they house cacti+succulents.



This one was my favorite.



There was also a Tillandsia+Epiphyte room, a palm house, and in the fern house they also kept a large collection of carnivorous plants which are always neat to see.



My aunt had told us about a good restaurant in the neighborhood called the Coastal Kitchen. Every few months the menu is changed to incorporate cuisine from a particular coastal region/nation. Right now they're featuring Cuba. I had a great grilled cheese w/ tomato and some tasty salt+pepper fries. Nothing too Cuban about that, but there weren't too many Cuban items on the menu that I was interested in for lunch. The stuff coming out of the kitchen looked delicious, but come hungry. The portions are large.

And I needed to save room for dinner...

... at Delancey.



It's just right. People are happy to be there. It's bustling, but I felt like I could relax. We were with a group, (thank goodness for the reservation!) so we had reason to order a few things and get a good taste of the menu. *Note: we brought our own reading material. See above.



To start: Burrata with toasts. Pizza: 2 Margheritas (above,) 1 Sausage, and 1 Chantrelle (below.)



To finish: 2 Bittersweet chocolate chip cookies with gray salt and 2 Plum crumbles. It was all so good. The pizza especially. Fabulous crust, sauce, flavor.



I'm not familiar with the neighborhood. Delancey is on a quiet, residential street just a block or so in from a really busy one. There's still no sign, and maybe it will just stay that way, but you'll know it by the crowd. It's a warm and inviting neighborhood place that's getting a lot of deserved attention. Brandon and Molly and everyone there are making wonderful food and I wish them great success. What they've done is lovely.

Hmmm... What about the rest of our trip? Well, we mostly enjoyed time with family. Nate introduced Jeff to Katamari Damacy and Calder held is first video game controller. Uh oh. I almost finished knitting the floppy cowl I've been working on for the past year. And Jeff and I might be getting into jigsaw puzzles. Who knew?

Seattle. We'll be back in January for more.